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About the Author

JAMES HARMS is the author of five books of poetry from Carnegie Mellon University Press, After West (2008), Freeways and Aqueducts (2004), Quarters (2001), The Joy Addict (1998, 2009), and Modern Ocean (1992), as well as a letterpress, limited edition volume, East of Avalon (2000) from Caddis Case Press. His poems, essays and short stories have appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, The Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, The Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The American Poetry Review, Verse, The North American Review, Oxford American and many other literary journals; in addition, he is a contributing editor to West Branch.

Harms has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, fellowships from the West Virginia and Pennsylvania Arts Commissions, and three Pushcart Prizes. Since arriving at West Virginia University, he has been named a Benedum Distinguished Scholar, The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher, The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Researcher (twice), and The Carnegie Foundation/CASE United State Teacher of the Year for West Virginia. He was the founding director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at West Virginia University, where he is currently Professor of English; he also directs the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College. During the spring semester of 2008 he served as Poet in Residence at Bucknell University. Harms lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with his wife Amanda, and their children.

Table of Contents

ONESkyField Trip to My First TimeDecadence: Newport Beach, California20th Century BoySick of FoodIf All of Us WorryFrom Now OnClose Your Eyes and Go to Heaven

TWOThe Tables on the PlazaReel around the ShadowTheoretical LifeAt the Rally to ProtestMrs. WorthingtonAfter YesLos Angeles

THREEAutobiography as Slide ShowMy Own Little Piece of HollywoodNow that Stephen's BackTomorrow, We'll Dance in AmericaFin de SiecleThe Friend Who Never MarriedWherever You Hang Your HeadCheeverFrom Ocean Park to Healdsburg

FOURMariner Without a MoonAs AlwaysEast of AvalonThe Joy AddictEpithalamium

Notes

What People are Saying About This

Campbell McGrath

"At the noisy fiesta of contemporary American poetry, James Harms refuses to speak in tongues, wear a goofy hat, or drink upside down tequila shots. . . . His coolly meditative poems offer up smart and lyrical commentaries upon contemporary social scenes, and manage to make large points without ever raising their voices."

Editorial Reviews

"From the towering absence of a bluegum eucalyptus to the 'No phone calls/flashing on the answering machine,/no hang-ups or warnings . . . no one between her and the edge/of the bed, no soft collision/to save her from falling,' James Harms has a real gift for engaging his reader with the palpability of loss and what he terms 'the stillness that follows loss.' At his best, his eye and hand are brilliantly coordinated, as in his evocation of Los Angeles:

I drove today as if to somewhere.I spun the dial left to find a song.And the space between stations was a thousand throats clearing.

It's in 'the space between' that James Harms clears his throat and so effectively finds his song."—PEN/Revson Fellowship Citation for The Joy Addict